Posts tagged: patterns

The copyright on this pattern is 1967, 1975, and I think that’s part of what I love about it. This pattern has modest leg openings – read as: child’s butt is not sticking out.

After looking at the pattern measurements, I decided to completely ignore them and make a size 7. I probably could have made a size 6x, possibly a 6, but this one is pretty good and will hopefully still fit at the end of summer when the girl is half a foot taller. Seriously, it’s ridiculous how fast this child is growing.

I used foldover elastic (FOE) on this, shiny side out. As far as I know, it makes no difference if the shiny side is out, but that’s how Zoe likes it. Cuts were 12″ FOE for the leg openings, 13.5″ for the arm holes, and 28.25″ around the neck and back.

I really enjoyed seam ripping the elastic on one of the arm holes after I didn’t catch the suit fabric in it. Particularly annoying since that was a section where no stretching of the elastic is needed and it should have been a very easy application. Note: while it may seem like a good idea to attach the FOE in one fell swoop, resist the urge. The additional time needed to pick out the three step zigzag stitches negates any time saved.

This swimsuit fabric is one I pulled out of the sale bin and thought it would be good to practice on. It turned out to be one of Zoe’s favorites and this is the second year she has a suit from it.

I made this in size 122, with 13 5/8″ of 1/4″ elastic in the legs. If there are actually markings for the placement of the straps, I have no idea where they are.

Zoe is just in this size, so I’m hoping it will fit her for a while. This suit has good coverage. The only thing I’m not crazy about are the tie straps. Well, that and I don’t like the fabric print, but we always make a tester when it comes to swimsuits.

Same pattern as the t-shirt from a couple weeks ago, but this time I made the capri pants. I used a butterfly camo twill for these, I think if I make them again I’ll go with something a little lighter. I wonder how they would be in seersucker. I didn’t put the drawstring in them because they just felt too stiff and I didn’t think it would play well. I’m just going to hem the bottoms. They call for elastic in the bottom, but they just seem too stiff for that to work well with this material.

These are a size 6. I’d never done pockets like this before and was nervous about it. As it happens, things actually do go quite well with sufficient pressing and reading the directions can sometimes be quite helpful. I took the hem up 3″ from where they were marked for capris and blindstitched them there, hoping to either have enough length to let them down completely to work as pants in the fall or adjust as needed for capri length next year if Zoe can still wear them in the waist.